COUNCIL chiefs were kept in the dark about a Lancaster landfill site riddled with BSE infected cattle, it was revealed this week. A report in the national press says that up to 200 infected carcasses were dumped at a site in Salt Ayre nearly 10 years ago - unknown to the council. Cllr Jerry Sutton, chairman of the Environment committee, said he was appalled they had not been informed by the Government.

Lancaster is one of 59 burial sites dotted about the country which appeared in a list published in the Independent newspaper. It also revealed that the carcasses contained the highly infectious spinal cord.

Cllr Sutton said: "It's appalling the City Council were not notified about the site. It's clear the Government are withholding information and we will be calling for the Environment Agency to study all the sites and to make their findings public."

A spokesman for Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food said a scientific inquiry is under way at six of the 59 burial sites to see if they pose a health risk to humans.

Local protester Sue Paylor, fighting to stop five incinerators being built at Nightingale Hall Farm, said she was astounded at the revelation. She told the Citizen: "I believe people have a right to know the dangers they are being exposed to and certainly that the BSE agent may seep into water courses and the water table. Scientists have suspected that some cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease may be attributed to infection from landfill sites. We need to find a safe way to deal with BSE on a national scale and it should not be a problem for local communities through the use of incinerators and landfill sites. It's not enough that we stop eating beef."

Terry Bradley, technical director of Lancashire Waste Services which took over control of the landfill site in 1993 from Lancashire County Council, said: "We are liaising with the Environment Agency and their advice is to leave the material where it is and not to excavate it."

County Cllr Frank McKenna said their demands for a full inquiry into the landfill sites - which include five across Lancashire - have still not been answered by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Dr Rick Gould, who is advising the campaigners against Nightingale Hall Farm, said: "We do not have enough information about what is going on and neither does the Government."

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